Recruiting fans always will remember the players that their favorite team landed but will also remember the ones who got away, sometimes even more vividly than team successes.
No matter how good the recruiter is, be it Jim Tressel, Urban Meyer or Ryan Day, there are going to be kids who get away, or at least it appears that they got away.
But with only one signing period for much of the run of this series (the first year of the December signing period went into place for the class of 2018), how do you really say that you “had someone” who may or may not have given you a verbal commitment.
It got us to thinking about some of the names out there that still bother fans, the ones who flipped, the ones who never answered the call and ultimately ended up somewhere else.
As we are now into the month of July, let’s take a walk down memory lane and talk about a few of these names from the class of 2006 through the class of 2018. The jury is still out on classes from 2019 and beyond and my first year with the site was 2006, so that seems to be a good starting point.
We have largely moved through the Jim Tressel-era as the 2010 season would be his final as Ohio State's head coach, the 2011 season would see Luke Fickell at the helm in a one-year "interim but not interim" role and then of course Urban Meyer would come to follow.
Setting the scene
The departure of a legend, a full dose of uncertainty, an upcoming season under .500 (after the bowl game the team was 6-7) and an uncertain NCAA future, with what ended up leading to a 2012 bowl ban, were all part of this class of 2011. Ohio State would still land a 24-man class, good for No. 11 in the nation. With all of that, Ohio State would stay local, 58.3-percent of the class would come from the state of Ohio. The Buckeyes would end up with one five-star, linebacker Curtis Grant, but names like Braxton Miller, Cardale Jones and Ryan Shazier will be the names that most people remember as this class would have a heavy dose of influence on Ohio State’s 2014 National Championship.
If only…
Aundrey Walker
The stories of Walker versus Shayne Wynn’s are very different as Walker is someone the Buckeyes desperately wanted and Wynn was someone that probably had more interest in Ohio State than the other way around, but more on Wynn in a second. Walker said very early on that he was going to do his own thing, and when that comes out, and you are dealing with an Ohio football player, you know that means that the eye is wandering. Walker really seemed to be more interested in the bright lights and the adoration that came along with being a star player, more than putting in everything that got him to that point and USC was there, ready and willing, to grab the player who was looking for a reason not to go to Ohio State. Walker’s USC career was not nearly what it could have been and despite having a tremendous upside, it would not be unfair to say that Walker’s collegiate career was disappointing.
Shane Wynn
Wynn on the other hand had an interest in Ohio State but at 5-foot-6, 147-pounds as a recruit, just did not have the size of what Ohio State was looking for at wideout and even today, smaller receivers and backs have struggled in the Ohio State system. This one stings more because he went to a divisional school and while Wynn did not tear up Ohio State (two touchdowns over four seasons, more than 200 yards combined receiving over those games) it was bittersweet for many to see someone coming out of the factory that was Glenville putting up numbers against the Buckeyes.
Trey DePriest
A lot of comparisons are made between DePriest in this cycle and Jordan Hicks the year before, but that is not exactly the case. Ohio State certainly was interested in DePriest but he may not have been as much of a sure-fire type of player the way that Hicks was. But, Ohio State and Alabama are always going to be competitive and there are not a lot of players that escape Ohio to head to Tuscaloosa (Ala.) so when it happens, it is noticed. The Buckeyes would end up with four linebackers in the class, technically. Conner Crowell would not stick and more on one of the linebackers to follow.
Ejuan Price
There may not be a better case of “one who got away” than Price, who signed with Ohio State but never joined the team. He was between the Buckeyes and the hometown Pitt Panthers and while he did sign with Ohio State, would ask for a release before ever joining the team, having that granted and would join the Panthers. As the story goes, Price ended up flipping a coin on signing day, to see if he would follow through with his Ohio State pledge or change at the last minute to Pitt. The coin may have said Ohio State but that would not keep him with the Buckeyes. Price would go on to be a captain with Pitt, rack up 143 tackles and force three fumbles and record 29.5 sacks over a four-year career.
